Non-Christian: Oh, so I’m actually agreeing with the church here. Huh, ok. Well I guess we all agree then. Hm, maybe this is some sort of media beat-up? Hey, isn’t this guy trying to sell a book?

Christian: Yes, that does seem to be in the article.

Non-Christian: Oh, but what about Brian Tamaki? Did you hear he scattered money all over the place for some reason?

Christian: Yes. He’s a proponent of the prosperity gospel. It’s rejected by pretty much everyone too. Except of course those who use it to make money.

Non-Christian: Oh. I had no idea. So all these people condemning him are also agreeing with the mainstream Christian position.

Christian: Yes, and the funniest thing is that they’re claiming the moral high ground over christians because of it.

Anyway, moving on…

I saw the name Giovanni Tiso on Whale Oil, and decided to google it. Turns out he’s the writer beind a blog who hates Whale, because you know, Whale’s mean. Karl du Fresne weighs in:

One is that he implies she’s a sociopath. Tiso quotes a line from her column – “They are both advancing a political cause” (a reference to Hager and Cameron Slater) – and then adds: “And if you think that, you’re a sociopath”. I’ve read this several times and don’t see how it can be construed as meaning anything other than that Clifton is a sociopath, which my dictionary defines as “someone affected by any of various personality disorders characterised by asocial or antisocial behaviour”.

…
But hang on. What happened when I took a poke at Tiso in this blog, using a similar rhetorical device against him? (I said he shouldn’t be allowed out in public without a minder, and suggested someone should adjust his medication.) He howled that I was being cruel – “vile” was his exact word – because he had a daughter with an intellectual disability, which he claimed (wrongly) I was aware of. Then he had the gall to whimper about people being unpleasant and indulging in ad hominem arguments. Well, hello.

Let’s get this straight then: it’s okay for Tiso to call a respected columnist a sociopath because he doesn’t like her take on the Dirty Politics affair, but it’s mean and horrid to suggest that he might be a bit doolally himself. That’s taking unfair advantage.

Thing is with Whale is, he’s not ashamed to be a drag-it-out-and-knock-it-down sort of guy. He knows what it is, and he knows that people disapprove (seriously, what’s with the people who think he doesn’t know that?). It’s the people who claim to be appalled at such behaviour, but can’t maintain their own standards that get to me.

Another thing that I don’t get is the people who are just outraged when people don’t lie down and agree to everything they say. Here’s an example today via Instapundit:

Assertions of injustice by young men are infuriating to some. Caroline Heldman, an associate professor of politics at Occidental College and co-founder of End Rape on Campus, said of the men who are turning to the courts, “These lawsuits are an incredible display of entitlement, the same entitlement that drove them to rape.”

Note, this is in the context of people who’ve been found by colleges to have raped, in spite of all evidence to the contrary.

The article the quote is from is (as he says) very long, but well worth your time. There’s some seriously messed up stuff going on in US colleges. Like the guy who’s room-mate face-booked that he was sick of the noise, but the final report said the room-mate was asleep at the time.

Columbia University has allowed law school students who feel they suffered trauma from two high-profile grand jury decisions to postpone taking their final exams, the school’s interim dean Robert Scott wrote in a message to students this weekend.

“The law school has a policy and set of procedures for students who experience trauma during exam period,” reads Scott’s message, according to the blog PowerLine.

“In accordance with these procedures and policy, students who feel that their performance on examinations will be sufficiently impaired due to the effects of these recent events may petition Dean Alice Rigas to have an examination rescheduled,” Scott continued, citing a St. Louis County grand jury’s decision not to indict Ferguson, Mo., police officer Darren Wilson for fatally shooting 18-year-old Michael Brown in August as well as a Staten Island grand jury’s decision not to indict Officer Daniel Pantaleo for using a chokehold which killed 43-year-old Eric Garner in July.

While people may disagree with the decision, if you consider something that distant to you that upsetting, how on earth do you hope to be a competent lawyer? How are you going to cope when you lose in court?

Me, I’d not have lied in the first place but hey, I’m pedantic like that. Seriously, I have a bad tendency to tell long stories about how exactly something happened rather than tell a much shorter, but less accurate version. But regardless of whether you’re like me or not, saying someone is a convicted felon when they’re not isn’t cool.

About this Blog

This Blog is the long time home of a blogger known across the internet as ScrubOne (That's Scrub One not Scru Bone). Where this handle has not been available, he is known as ScrubOneHD (HD for Half Done).

Other bloggers have occasionally been contributors.

ScrubOne confesses to the Christian faith, and conservative politics but does not necessarily blog according to public perception of either.

You can email us tips, comments not intended for publication, offers of money for policy changes, volunteer to join in the fun etc: "scrubone" at google mail (gmail.com)